Hard Candy Take It Off Makeup Remover Review

I mentioned in my 2012 favorites post that I’ve recently come to love this Hard Candy Take It Off Makeup Remover. Here are my full thoughts on it.

Hard Candy Take It Off Makeup Remover

I remember Hard Candy being the ‘it’ thing in the ’90s. I was still really young back then, so older readers correct me if I’m wrong, but I recall them sort of growing alongside Urban Decay as one of the ‘grunge’ makeup brands.

They disappeared from the scene for a while, before reappearing exclusively in Walmart stores with their brand new low-cost line (before, they were a mid-level brand similar to Urban Decay). I’ve picked up a few bits and bobs here and there over the years, but found their products to be kinda hits or misses, even within a single product (case in point, my sister bought one of their lip balms and I loved the texture and pigmentation on her, but when I bought the same one for myself, it was hard, dry and crumbly with no pigment).

So, I had very low expectations for this makeup remover.
First off, Hard Candy is cruelty-free which is great — it’s not that easy to find cruelty-free at Walmart of all places, so that’s a huge plus in my book. This remover is a lotion-type texture — not too thick, not too watery.

I was surprised to see some nice-sounding extracts and such in the ingredients list (cranberry and whatever “sea whip” is, for example), although of course they’re too far down to really be of any significance in the product. Strangely enough, the bottle says nothing about those extracts.
There is a very, very, very faint coconut scent which is likely because of the coconut oil used in the formula. I hate coconut-scented anything, like, absolutely cannot abide them in any way, shape or form, and it did not bother me, so if you’re sensitive to scents, I think you’ll be OK with this.

Back of tube and ingredients list

It touts itself as able to easily remove “glitter, waterproof eye makeup & bold colors” without leaving any greasy residue.

It’s hard to demonstrate with photos, so I did the best I could. I heavily swatched some of my glitteriest shadows in the below picture: Urban Decay Maui Wowie and Oil Slick and the two shades in the MAC She Who Dares Mineralize eyeshadow duo. (Firefox is insisting that glitteriest is not a word, but let’s be honest here: it ought to be.) These were applied dry, over Urban Decay Primer Potion. These are shades which, for me personally, seem to cause a lot of glitter fallout and just mess in general.

I worked in some remover… (Note: I was very generous in my application; for most looks, I think you don’t need to be so heavy-handed.)

Voila! Well. Kinda. You can see the left behind, stray glitter reflecting back in this shot. Like it’s mocking me.

As a remover, this is kinda unremarkable. Yes, it did get off all my waterproof makeup but it wasn’t quite effortless. This does require a bit of sitting and massaging so it can properly break everything down. Plus, glitter is the herpes of craft supplies so it didn’t get it all off. However, as I briefly mentioned in my 2012 favorites post, this remover really lives up to the claim of leaving behind no greasy residue.

It seriously just leaves a clean feeling. Not parched and dry, nor is there a feeling of a “film” or oily residue. It just feels like your skin 30 minutes after you’ve applied your moisturizer — normal and comfortable.

So, I said it was kinda unremarkable earlier, but that’s wrong: it is remarkable because you can use it and just be done. There’s no rinsing or cleansing or anything required. It’s great for using all over. I’ve seriously squirted out a blob before and used it on a literal full face of makeup, then just taken a wad of toilet paper and wiped my face down before passing out. (That was not a night I was proud of.)

But it’s thus great for fixing mistakes, especially for those of us who are not very creative and can’t just slap together a dozen-hued look in one go. I tried to be festive and creative for a Christmas holiday look (despite feeling like warmed-over barf) and just could. not. get. it. together.
I swear I even had a mild existential crisis at one point, staring at the black eyeliner smeared all over my eye, convincing myself I was going to fix that with blending.
I used this remover in spades that day, obliterating any traces of my failed creations. I might’ve banned my boyfriend from coming in the bedroom to avoid him witnessing my shame while I was working.

If I’d used any other remover to do that, I’d have to wash my face again and reapply moisturizer because it either left a residue, or left my skin feeling too dry.
Another bonus? It doesn’t leave any sort of blurry vision like some bi-phase removers can, and when I accidentally gooped a bunch in my eye (like, literally in my eye) it didn’t sting, even though I was wearing contacts.

It’s also cheap as chips, at an even 5 bucks a tube. Unfortunately, it is only available at Walmart and even then, I found not all Walmarts carry Hard Candy or not the whole line. I had to go across town and dig a bit to find this.
The tube will last you a long time as generally you don’t need a ton of product. Especially if you’re only using it on your eyes, I use a literal pea-size for each eye, massage it in for about 15 seconds and then wipe off with a cotton pad.
It did pretty well with my lash glue, too, as I usually end up having to sit there and pick stray bits of glue out from between my eyelashes.

Overall, I really recommend this remover, especially given it’s so inexpensive and widely available (unless you live in NYC or somewhere else where there’s no Walmart, but even then you can order online).
Have you tried this before? What do you think?

By the way, if you were wondering… I got over my existential crisis and just did a plain neutral look because I knew I was going to come back and pass out in bed later. Being sick during the hols sucks.

4 thoughts on “Hard Candy Take It Off Makeup Remover Review”

I seriously think I’m going to buy it, I usually just use make up remover wipes but it’s so hard to remove eyeliner ans mascara with them, and I hate using make up removers because of the oily sensation after using them, but this seems to be a good option